Protectionism makes domestic firms less competitive in the export market
Import barriers raise domestic prices through higher costs for intermediate inputs - and so export products also become more expensive and lose market share in the face of international competition. Also, protectionism leads to retaliation by trading partners.

Protectionism has costs for a country's overall domestic production
Each dollar of increased protection leads to a drop of 66 cents in gross domestic product (GDP).

Protectionism has a negative impact on the global economy
An increase of $1 in tariff revenues can result in a $2.16 fall in world exports and a $0.73 drop in world income.

Protectionism holds back economic growth for all countries
Full liberalisation of trade in goods and services would help increase average real incomes in developing countries by 1.3%, and by 0.76% in high-income countries. Newly-emerging economies, including Egypt, Thailand and Nigeria, would gain 3% to 6% of GDP.

Fact is a tremendous amount of product is going to produced with very few people employed

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If there is very few people employed and tremendous amount of product produced, the question is who will buy those products? Since if there is rampant unemployment there will be no paychecks and so no buys the whole economy will crash.

This year alone there have been two nationwide referendums on executive pay, one of which approved strict limits on bonuses and banned golden handshakes.

Now two more votes are on the way, the first on the introduction of a minimum wage, and the second, and most controversial, on a guaranteed basic income for all legal residents, whether they work or not.

A universal basic income sounds very radical, but it is not a new idea - Thomas More proposed it in his work Utopia in the 16th Century.

On the left, universal basic income is thought to be fairer, while on the right it is seen as the policy that would make welfare payments obsolete.

There will be no incentive for young people to learn a job or study
Rudolf Strahm, Swiss economist
For Enno Schmidt, a key supporter of universal basic income, Switzerland is the perfect place, and 2013 the perfect time, to launch a campaign to introduce it.

"Switzerland is the only place in Europe, and maybe in the world, where the people have the right to make something real, [through] direct democracy," he says.

That system of direct democracy means the Swiss could vote for free beer if they wanted to.

To hold a nationwide referendum, all citizens have to do is gather 100,000 signatures calling for a vote, and the ballot must be held - the result is binding.

Some countries are looking at a universal income. Every citizen would get a basic amount even if they didn't work.

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And where would that money come from (since no one will be paying taxes and no one will be buying any products)? Printing? Like US is doing it now. It will lead to hyper inflation and collapse of that currency and economy.

Dollar can be printed recklessly as it is reserve currency (till now don't know about future) look at Euro it falling apart and will be no more there in 2020s. Can Thailand go on printing money? If it does it will become toilet paper.

This year alone there have been two nationwide referendums on executive pay, one of which approved strict limits on bonuses and banned golden handshakes.

Now two more votes are on the way, the first on the introduction of a minimum wage, and the second, and most controversial, on a guaranteed basic income for all legal residents, whether they work or not.

A universal basic income sounds very radical, but it is not a new idea - Thomas More proposed it in his work Utopia in the 16th Century.

On the left, universal basic income is thought to be fairer, while on the right it is seen as the policy that would make welfare payments obsolete.

There will be no incentive for young people to learn a job or study
Rudolf Strahm, Swiss economist
For Enno Schmidt, a key supporter of universal basic income, Switzerland is the perfect place, and 2013 the perfect time, to launch a campaign to introduce it.

"Switzerland is the only place in Europe, and maybe in the world, where the people have the right to make something real, [through] direct democracy," he says.

That system of direct democracy means the Swiss could vote for free beer if they wanted to.

To hold a nationwide referendum, all citizens have to do is gather 100,000 signatures calling for a vote, and the ballot must be held - the result is binding.

Click to expand...

Sounds like Communism.

Except that everyone gets a share without working for it. Great way to create a nation full of unskilled, obese, entitled twats.

Lets say the 4th industrial revolution results in a decrease in employment by 90 percent, something has to happen. Impact will be greater on countries like India where productivity is 1/8th that of the USA.

Lets say the 4th industrial revolution results in a decrease in employment by 90 percent, something has to happen. Impact will be greater on countries like India where productivity is 1/8th that of the USA.

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Your understanding of economy is worse than that of a lazy SJW Bolshevik in community school. If 90% people lose their jobs, hence their purchasing power; who would consume products manufactured by rest 10%? A social system with 90% unemployment is not sustainable, and rest 10% would lose their earnings because no one would be there to buy their produce. And don't say a word about lunacies like 3-D printing. Only people with zero knowledge of material science and production engineering make a mistake of thinking than anything except most simple products could be manufactured by 3-D printing.

Any Xth Industrial revolution would not extinguish jobs, but would only change their character. When you replace an assembly line worker with a Robot, you extinguish assembly line job, but at the same time create jobs in manufacturing plant that would be designing and manufacturing that robot and its spares (which need frequent change) and those of technicians that would service and run that robot.

Productivity of american workers is higher due to higher automation in US industries. You should be more worried as to whether your spoiled brat SJW generation ,with their useless gender studies degree, is hard working or motivated enough to make a fast and constant transition or not. In Darwinian India, such a change would be business as usual.